Divine intervention brought them together and, as far as Theron Smith and his wife Lena May are concerned, it is divine intervention that continues to guide their destiny and shape their lives.

Back in 1984, during the first six weeks of their relationship, the couple discussed many topics, including having children, and mutually agreed that they would like to have ten.

On Sunday, Mr. Smith will have eight beautiful reasons to celebrate Father's Day: Cheser?, Jasmine, Krystal, Alexis, Destiny, Theron Cody Jeroe (TJ), Kaitlyn and Chloe-Christina, who range in age from 18 years to 23 months, and each of whom is regarded as a special blessing.

“We cherish the opportunity that God has given us. He has loaned these children to us so we are accountable to him as to how we raise them,” Mr. Smith says.

Certainly, he is proud of all of his children, and exudes a great love for them, but despite the long hours he spends away from home earning a living, he is still very much a hands-on father who is respected, and who metes out affection and discipline as required.

A full-time firefighter and certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) who also drives a taxi to help support his large family, Mr. Smith says that “managing eight children is the easiest thing in the world because of the success of my wife, and her ability, patience, love and concern for them”.

He also praises his wife's expert management of what he calls ‘Smith Inc.'

“She cooks, cleans, takes care of everything, and is a full-time manager, supervisor, CEO and president. She does a wonderful job, and God has blessed me with her.”

Far from being a chauvinist, however, Mr. Smith sees himself as one half of a team with his wife of 20 years, and as such readily shares any and all domestic chores, including cooking, as required.

“The objective is not for her to be a slave,” he says. “I respect her and what she does for the home. I couldn't raise eight children alone. We have to work together and support one another. She also has goals and dreams, so every so often I give her free time to go and do what she wants.”

As the resident ‘Mr. Fixit,' the busy husband and father also enjoys sharing these responsibilities with his only son, popularly known as ‘TJ'.

As a stay-at-home mother who gave up her job as a legal secretary, Mrs. Smith is also responsible for home schooling all of the children, with the approval of the Department of Education.

“She works out the curriculum for each child, and when there is a problem she facilitates a solution,” Mr. Smith says.

Both the Accelerated Christian Education programme, in which the children were originally enrolled, and now the more challenging Alpha Omega system were chosen by their parents to enhance their overall development as human beings.

“The lessons are designed to create independent, self-motivated children,” Mr. Smith says. “They love the challenges, which create managerial thinking. The solutions and results that come from their work are not repetitious. They are going to be managers, doctors, lawyers. Whatever God places in their hearts to do they will do with excellence,” their proud father says.

Indeed, the oldest daughter, Cheser?, is now doing well at the Bermuda College.

“She wants to become a marine biologist, and is now pursuing a career as an environmentalist,” her father says. “Soon we will have her on a ship that goes on a six-month educational trip around the world, which will help her in her studies. The only way to be sure that all the books and training work is by giving her the room and space to work on all of the challenges and opportunities she may encounter. I love her.”

While fostering the traditional values of a close-knit family, Mr. Smith and his wife also recognise the importance of social interaction beyond the home, so all six of the older children, including ‘TJ', are students at the In Motion School of Dance. In fact, 14-year-old Krystal has just won a Bermuda Ballet Association Patricia Calnan Memorial Award, and leaves this week to attend a dance camp at the highly-regarded North Carolina School of the Arts.

“Krystal is a gifted and talented dancer who is in In Motion's senior company, but I love watching all my children perform because you can see the growth and maturity,” Mr. Smith says. “Watching them deal with situations and resolve them is heartening.”

As busy as the family is all week, however, Sunday is sacrosanct - a true day of rest for everyone which always begins with morning worship at the New Testament Church of God Healing Centre in Somerset, where Mr. Smith is a minister, councilman, counsellor, and former Sunday School teacher.

Like everything he does with his family, the experience of sharing their faith together brings him special joy - as does the inviolate weekly “date” he keeps with his wife because he also recognises the importance of nurturing their own relationship amid the business of raising eight children.

“We go to dinner or a movie just to be alone together,” he says.

The couple have also taken time out at a small hotel to discuss and plan their children's future, which they then returned home to discuss with them.

Of course, there are times when the offspring test their parents' authority, but as always a rational approach is taken.

“When they hear what I have to say they value my experience and knowledge, and they try to carry that out to the full,” Mr. Smith says. “I believe in discipline, and being able to correct my children when they are doing something they are not supposed to do. Once you communicate your intentions of what you want done, and it is not done, then that is disobedience which results in punishment or correction.”

“My husband has old-fashioned values about discipline which is good because I'm the soft one,” Mrs. Smith concedes.

Asked how he copes with all the demands and inevitable problems and mini-crises children with different personalities are bound to make on a man who works two jobs, Mr. Smith responds that, as a firefighter and certified EMT, he is trained to deal with calamities, so he simply faces whatever comes his way calmly and rationally. For him, the glass is always half full, and there is a solution to everything. The challenge is finding it, sometimes with divine help.

“For 24 years I have dealt with calamities, but if I find a situation that is too challenging, I pray to God and ask him to help me resolve it,” he says.

Certainly, Mr. Smith was tested on December 23, 1991 when his fourth child, Alexis, decided to become an early Christmas present, leaving Mrs. Smith no time to get to the hospital, and casting her husband in the role of midwife.

“I had seen our other three children being born, so I knew what I had to do,” Mr. Smith remembers. “I had asked the doctor if I could deliver Cheser? but he said no, so when Alexis was being delivered at home I realised this must be God giving me a chance to do what I had always desired.”

Even so, he asked fellow firefighter Scott Quinn, also a qualified EMT, to join him. Mr. Quinn started putting the Smith children in his car, but Alexis was in a hurry, so instead they all trooped in to watch the miracle of their sister's birth, which has made a lasting and wonderful impression upon them. As a result, Mr. Smith says he and his fourth daughter enjoy “an unbelievable, inseparable bond”.

In fact, he has seen all of his children born, an experience he says is just as beautiful each time it occurs.

As the only son, of course, ‘TJ' (short for Theron Junior) has a unique place in his father's heart, who jokes that, with all the females in the household, he is being well trained to become a fine husband and father himself some day.

When it comes to financing the needs of such a large family, Mr. Smith says, with his usual quiet confidence and utter faith in God, that things somehow always work out. He is proud of the fact that, two years ago, the family was able to purchase their first home, and he has no doubt that divine guidance will continue to provide a way to finance the debt.

As for the future, the father of eight says “our vision for our home is communicating with our children - where we want to go, and how we want to get there”. Just as the couple believe it is God's plan to have blessed them their present children, so too will He decree whether or not they reach their original goal of ten.

Meanwhile, when it comes to celebrating Father's Day this year, Mr. Smith hints at a wee touch of sadness because his wife is accompanying Krystal to North Carolina - the first time the family has not been together on his special day.

“But I have seven other children to celebrate with, so I will be fine,” he smiles.